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I completely agree with my generation not being hard workers. Im 18 and a senior in h.s., ive worked with a contractor, i work in a metal shop now, do landscaping on the skde and i have for years i have yet to meet, in person, someone my age who works as much as i do. Then the people who work take no pride in their work. It drives me insane.

Speaking of working hard, it's like pulling teeth just to get my 12 and 15 yr old's to help rake leaves. And me, I just go ahead and do it myself because it's easier, it's the way I was raised, you just do it. I used to try to make my boys do things like that but it seems that society has changed to pamper kids. They cry to my wife and she thinks I'm being hard on them. She was raised with the "you can't hold a baby too much" mentality. Me, if the diaper is good and no fever, then cry away cause I got ear plugs! All the guys in my shop are the same way. Out of 30 plus guys, I'm the youngest (42) and now were wondering who's going to do the hard work when we start to slow down? Yeah, i'm just ranting too. Great topic though.

p.s. to the original poster, you may need to start welders at a lower age and $$$'s and train them in how you want them to weld. If you pay them well and get them decent benefits and vacations as they grow and learn, maybe they will stick around.

It seems to be the same with my field or any field for that matter. I am a carpenter by trade, and finding a good carpenter is so very tough. I would say we would go through 10-15 people telling us how good they are all the stuff they know blah blah blah. But when it comes time to actually doing it they are mostely clowns. So i guess its the same with any skilled trade. If you do find someone good, they want big money and its worth it at least it has been for me, but even those guys end up just going off on thier own.

Its really tough now adays to find good help, I say when you do take care of them good, cause its been the toughest thing I have run into. its harder to find good help, then it is to find work for the help.

"diamondfab", good welders are made, not born, but good men are born (more precisely, raised), not made.

If you can't find new-hires who are both good welders and good men, look for the good men who are as yet mediocre welders. Good men WANT to be shown how to do a job better, they WELCOME any positive instruction, they ASPIRE to become truly professional-grade, . . . and they detest working in places that don't seem to value professionalism other than with meaningless slogans exhorting "Quality and Pride". Companies in which the owners or officers or even second-level supervisors never appear on the jobsite and personally inspect the work of even their lowliest employees are not ones in which good men feel anyone cares about their efforts to do good work.

With, as I understand, the disappearance of the best of the old-fashioned formal apprenticeship programs (I regret never having been in one), the better employers will pretty much have to look for men who are eager to be trained up. Some young guys who mean well may not be as aware of the potential for self-instruction (via books and videos) if they weren't well-raised or well-schooled. Hand them a list of instructional resources and tell them that if they learn the tech stuff, your foremen will show them the hands-on part so that they can become REAL welders.

Speaking of working hard, it's like pulling teeth just to get my 12 and 15 yr old's to help rake leaves. And me, I just go ahead and do it myself because it's easier.

So you give them a job, they refuse to do the job, then you go do the job?

Seems to me that you are creating your own problem right there.

Maybe if you made it a "do your job or no meals for you till it's done" type gig then the leaves would get raked. You appear to be making your own problems.
Children behave in the way you expect them to if consequences are attached to their actions.

If you just give up and do the work yourself, they will play you till the day you die. Try that in the Army : )

Everybody is dogging on the current generation but I see a lot of hard working, ambitious, want to learn young workers in my day. They said the same thing about your generation and the many before that. Maybe I'm an anomily but I see quite a few hard nosed young hands in my line of work.
Of course there's quite a bit on money to be had, so that might skew the results from the cheap labor pool.

So you give them a job, they refuse to do the job, then you go do the job?

Seems to me that you are creating your own problem right there.

Maybe if you made it a "do your job or no meals for you till it's done" type gig then the leaves would get raked. You appear to be making your own problems.
Children behave in the way you expect them to if consequences are attached to their actions.

If you just give up and do the work yourself, they will play you till the day you die. Try that in the Army : )

Everybody is dogging on the current generation but I see a lot of hard working, ambitious, want to learn young workers in my day. They said the same thing about your generation and the many before that. Maybe I'm an anomily but I see quite a few hard nosed young hands in my line of work.
Of course there's quite a bit on money to be had, so that might skew the results from the cheap labor pool.

JT

Read the part after what you quoted on me and see the "other" problem... Others in the world push the "coddle them and nurture them" crap. I grew up with my grandparents and if I did something wrong or didn't do what I was told, I at least got the benefit of picking the "switch" they would use on me. Can't do that no more (or get caught anyways.)

My kids get no favors from me and working a full time job and a side job, I'm not going to babysit them. They've learned to go to their Mother or her Parents who disagree with my methods. I offer them what they need to learn. You see it all the time, A parent get's in trouble for disciplining their kids and sometimes I catch myself thinking, what did the Parent do wrong? I don't believe in hurting or shaming, degrading a child but "timeout's" don't work.

My kids can (and will) blame a lot of things on me when they get older but they can't say that I didn't try to teach them through example or that I did't try to show them the right way to do things. I was in the Army. One thing I learned is to never ask anyone to do something I wouldn't do myself, and in most cases, I will do it with them. I probably learned my best work ethics washing dishes at the local "Sirloin Stockade" as a teenager though.